Här några strofer ur poemet "Kanelskalaren" av Michael Ondaatje.

Och, ja, man kan älska för doftens skull.

When we swam once

I touched you in the water

and our bodies remained free,

you could hold me and be blind of smell.

You climbed the bank and said

This is how you touch other women

the grasscutter’s wife, the lime burner’s daughter.

And you searched your arms

for the missing perfume.

And knew

what good is it

to be the lime burner’s daughter

left with no trace

as if not spoken to in the act of love

as if wounded without the pleasure of scar

You touched

your belly to my hands

in the dry air and said

I am the cinnamon peeler’s wife

Smell me.

                                                  

 Michael Ondaatje